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The Shield
Feb. 12th, 2011 09:18 amA friend of mine once remarked that Up was a movie for dog lovers, because it portrayed how wonderful dogs are. Which confused me, because I thought it was a movie for cat lovers because it portrayed how mind numbingly stupid dogs are. Conclusion? Up is a movie that is honest about dogs. I've heard the same thing about Bible Camp: us east coast commie pinko liberal (and libertarians) find it almost a documentation of child abuse, but the people portrayed thought it was fair and they came off well. So I assume it's presenting the facts honestly.
I think the same thing may be going on with the The Shield. The main character, Vic, is a cop who uses the power of his badge to help his friends escape justice, get rich distributing drugs and plain old stealing, and while he loves his family in the abstract sense, doesn't do so in the verb sense. He beats suspects and informants, he ( spoilers ). He accomplishes some good with his methods- beating a child molester so they can find the child before she dies, arresting drug dealers (that are competing with the ones he's allied with), rescuing a baby, but in my mind, these things were done essentially as cover, to give him the power to keep beating people up and taking their stuff, and does nothing to redeem him.
Which isn't to say I didn't like the show- I'm enjoying it very much. I like the study of the system that allows this guy to exist, and what this system does to the other people in it. But I was surprised to find that the show's creators and actors think that Vic is occupying a gray area and has redeeming features, as opposed to being all black and putting on a white hat to sneak in to the club house. Oh, they do a great job at portraying how he preserves his own self image as a moral crusader, but they also do a good job of portraying how he's wrong- just like he clearly loves his kids, but isn't capable of actually spending time with them or treating his wife with even a bare minimum of respect.
For me to buy the "Vic is worth it" story, crime would have to be a lot worse and he'd have to be shown making a genuine difference in it. Maybe it's because I've had minimal experience with violent crime (although I did end up in the hospital after my bike was stolen), but I don't see it. And this show is from 2002, not the middle of the crack epidemic. Which makes me think that this is another fantastically honest, true to life work, and I'm seeing my own opinions on police brutality.
I think the same thing may be going on with the The Shield. The main character, Vic, is a cop who uses the power of his badge to help his friends escape justice, get rich distributing drugs and plain old stealing, and while he loves his family in the abstract sense, doesn't do so in the verb sense. He beats suspects and informants, he ( spoilers ). He accomplishes some good with his methods- beating a child molester so they can find the child before she dies, arresting drug dealers (that are competing with the ones he's allied with), rescuing a baby, but in my mind, these things were done essentially as cover, to give him the power to keep beating people up and taking their stuff, and does nothing to redeem him.
Which isn't to say I didn't like the show- I'm enjoying it very much. I like the study of the system that allows this guy to exist, and what this system does to the other people in it. But I was surprised to find that the show's creators and actors think that Vic is occupying a gray area and has redeeming features, as opposed to being all black and putting on a white hat to sneak in to the club house. Oh, they do a great job at portraying how he preserves his own self image as a moral crusader, but they also do a good job of portraying how he's wrong- just like he clearly loves his kids, but isn't capable of actually spending time with them or treating his wife with even a bare minimum of respect.
For me to buy the "Vic is worth it" story, crime would have to be a lot worse and he'd have to be shown making a genuine difference in it. Maybe it's because I've had minimal experience with violent crime (although I did end up in the hospital after my bike was stolen), but I don't see it. And this show is from 2002, not the middle of the crack epidemic. Which makes me think that this is another fantastically honest, true to life work, and I'm seeing my own opinions on police brutality.
